Saint Etienne. Casino launches planned capital increases, action will be suspended on Wednesday

The distributor Casino, about to fall into the hands of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky on Wednesday, announced on Monday that it was launching capital increases provided for in its safeguard planand specified that its stock price would be suspended on Wednesday.

Casino indicated in a press release on Monday that it was launching the capital increases which “are part of Casino’s accelerated safeguard plan decided by the Paris Commercial Court on February 26, 2024”.

These operations will very significantly dilute the distributor’s current shareholders, starting with the first of them, the future ex-CEO Jean-Charles Naouri.

The action unscrews

A shareholder holding 1% of Casino’s share capital “prior to” the financial operations will ultimately only hold 0.003%, specifies the distributor, who “will publish a new press release following the effective completion of the operations”.

The distributor’s action logically fell significantly on Monday, losing 64% to settle at 0.1939 euros at the close of the markets.

Casino specifies that “the listing of Casino shares will be suspended on March 27 and should resume on March 28, 2024 at the opening of the market (subject to the successful completion of the financial restructuring)”.

The more than century-old group will fall on Wednesday in the fold of Daniel Kretinskyat the end of a massive restructuring of its debt, which will signal the end of the long reign of Jean-Charles Naouri.